‘Thanks, Jordan!’ Kiera smiled through the fogged up car window. ‘I’ll see you again!’
After that, their meetings became a ritual. Jordan and Kiera fell in love with each other and started dating. They danced, walked the night streets of Manhattan, and kissed before saying, ‘I love you! He asked her to promise to quit drinking, and she agreed. She asked him to promise he wouldn’t dump her like her ex-boyfriend and he assured her he would.
It had only been two weeks since their love story had blossomed when Kira told Jordan that she was pregnant with his triplets and talked him into marrying her. He was shocked because it had all happened too fast. He wasn’t ready for it, but was thrilled to become a father.
The couple was soon married in a private ceremony, and it was strange that no one from Kira’s family attended the wedding. Jordan didn’t know anything about her parents, and when he asked her, she said they were dead. That was all he knew and he didn’t bother her anymore because he didn’t want to hurt her. At the time, nothing had been more important to him than starting a life with her, and he had trusted her blindly.
Now it all seemed like an evil joke. Jordan looked at the wedding ring he still wore after Kyra’s death and realised that she had always kept him in a web of lies.
‘I was an idiot! Everything she told me was a lie… Her love was a game… She married me because she needed a man to be the father of someone else’s children.’
‘I should have known the children weren’t mine when she told me she was only two weeks pregnant. I was so stupid! She cheated on me…and with an old man too. How disgusting!’ – he wheezed, tears pouring endlessly from his bloodshot eyes.
The babies suddenly woke up and started crying in the back seat. Jordan was so disturbed and upset that he wanted to run away somewhere where he wouldn’t hear those cries again. But at the same time, he couldn’t start hating his babies just because someone told him they weren’t his. He was confused by the depth of truth in Denis’s claims, so he immediately returned home, still sceptical of any further action.
Jordan decided to forget about the encounter with the stranger and got to work. He put the babies in the cot, taking their nappies off one by one. First was Alan, then Eric, and then Stan. He bathed the babies and changed their nappies. He sang a lullaby, trying hard not to sound like a hungry bear growling in the woods.
When all three were asleep in their cots after the meal, Jordan started washing the dishes, but no sooner had he finished than he smelled the smell of burning. ‘Oh shit, spaghetti!’ – he shrieked, nearly burning his fingers trying to get the pan off the cooker. That’s when he remembered the laundry and ran upstairs to the bathroom, overflowing with foam. Because of the stress, Jordan had used too much laundry detergent. It seemed that this day in his life was all about raining problems.
He saw that it was already time to rush to the bar for the night shift. Then he called Mrs Wills, his elderly neighbour, to come and look after the children.
‘Thank you, Mrs Wills… I’ll be here until you get here,’ he told her and went to check on his little ones. They were sound asleep in their cots. Jordan agonised at the sight of them and couldn’t settle down. He used to think he had the strength and spirit to do everything for his children. But now everything seemed so different and sour, and Denis’s words kept echoing in his head.
‘Why did you do this to me, Kiera? I have never lied or cheated on you… how could you do this? You’ve always lied to me about everything and I can’t figure out what’s true and what isn’t… Even the day you died, you told me you were at a party. I still don’t know where you went that night,’ Jordan whimpered, tears running down his folds as he remembered that dark day that still haunts him.
It had been a rainy night and Jordan was restless, looking out the window every now and then to see if Kiera had come in. His phone was starting to run out of battery because of the constant calls to all her friends, asking if she was with them. Kira told him that she was at a party at a friend’s house, but no one had seen her. Her phone was switched off, probably due to a dead battery, and Jordan began to panic as the time was nearing midnight. His newborn babies started crying. They were hungry and he didn’t know how to comfort them.
Jordan somehow put his babies to sleep. He picked up his phone to see if Kira had called and instead got a call from the station.
‘Yes, Jordan Fox here.’
‘Mr Fox, we’re calling from the station. Could you please come to the morgue? We need help identifying a woman’s body.’
Jordan was sweating as he left his children at his neighbour’s house and rushed to the hospital. He had been called to identify the body of a young woman found in a car crash that night.